The Way

The past couple of weeks have been busy with travel, conferences, training, and senseless bombings in Boston. Last Monday I was leading a group of youth ministers here at LifeWay and my phone started going off with text messages from all sorts of people. All of the texts had basically the same message: "Are you OK?"   For the first few minutes I had no idea why I would be getting these messages then one of them included that there had been a bomb at the Boston Marathon. A couple of things raced through my mind, but more importantly, people came to mind. People I knew who were in Boston running the marathon. I have run it four times and every time it has been an amazing experience. I thought of Charlie and Ron Kramer who is a part of the Boston Athletic Association who puts the race on. I thought of Jim and Herb also who were running. And I felt conflicted in many ways. I was concerned for the safety of the ones I knew were there and I was thankful that people who know I ...

It has been a busy week for sure. Last Saturday was Morgan's Banquet/Prom and it was big fun for sure. She looked beautiful (that is a dad speaking, but really, the girl is beautiful and so is her sister) and Ethan looked pretty good too. They enjoyed all the pictures, food, dancing (I am not even sure they danced), bowling, food, and the company of the other DCA students and dates. Sunday morning early I flew to Boston, hit the expo, got the packet, shirt, walked around the expo exhibits, climbed in the car and headed to the hotel. Made contact with Ron Kramer, my BAA friend who takes care of me on race day, and Allyson Clark who was wonderful and provided transportation to the start and took me back to the hotel after the finish. She was a wonderful asset to the whole experience. Now let's talk the race - it is mostly downhill the first 16 miles, a series of 4 hills through mile 21 including the famous Heartbreak Hill, and then more downhill from 21-26. I felt decent at the...

James 1:5 is a verse that has come to mean a lot to me over the years. I find myself asking God for wisdom over and over and yet, it dawned on me recently that many times I ask for wisdom, so I will be right. Hmmm. How self-serving is that? Scripture is clear that He gives to all generously and w/o criticizing . I am thankful for that promise, but really have been focusing on making sure that I am asking for wisdom for His glory, not just so I will be right. I like being right, but that is a form of pride if I am not yielding to Him. Today is tax day and that is never a fun day. I grow weary of paying so much to a entity/government that does not represent the people it says that it does. So very thankful that my hope and trust is in Christ and not any political party or leader. Scripture does not instruct government to be our source of hope and provision, but for Christ to be our all in all. That is a lesson I seem to have to learn over and over. Lots of hulla-ba-loo right now abou...

I used to get this question from my mom every once in awhile when I was a kid and had disappeared for a couple of hours. It is a good question to ask periodically. I have been a few places since last week but all in all they have been good places to be. We finished up our vacation in Orange Beach, AL and drove home on Sunday. It was Easter and was quite weird for us to not be in church on Easter of all days. We did worship with a few folks on the radio as we traveled through Alabama. A couple of good sermons and then one that I am sure would have been good but the delivery was so distracting that I had a hard time hearing what the preacher was saying. Suffice it to say that if you know Dennis Swanberg and have heard him impersonate some southern preachers, well, . . . i spent too much time laughing. Not proper I know, but . . . okay, enough of that. This week has been good. Flew to NM and met with Sam Swann who is the state youth guy for NM and doing a great job there. He is one of...

I gotta tell you that I am getting a little more than excited about this race. This training schedule and the weather have been pretty tough, but I am starting to feel like I am about ready. Did a 10-miler today and mixed in 4x800s and 4x400s and hit my marks. I love it when a plan comes together. Here is the information on how to track me via your cell phone if you are so inclined. TEXT Simply send the word RUNNER to 31901 using your US mobile phone*. You will then receive an SMS text response with instructions on how to submit a runner's bib number. (*Message and data rates may apply. 8-10 messages. Send STOP to quit. Available on participating carriers AT&T, Alltel, Boost, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Virgin.) My runner # is 11463 Turner, Paul A. 46 M Hermitage TN USA E-MAIL You can register for the AT&T Athlete Alert Program through t...

This past week has been a good one. It has included long runs for marathon training, a trip to Orlando for the Youth Pastor's Summit and a DCA Lady Wildcats basketball win, as well as, a guys loss. A good friend and former boss lost his dad this past week and is burying him today. Pray for Joe and his brother Jerry please. Their daddy was a great guy and has left a great legacy for these two and their families. His daddy lived a long productive life and in many ways pushed on farther than many thought he could go. USA Hockey definitely went farther in the Olympics than many thought they would or even could. The DCA Lady Wildcats have pushed on through a couple of weeks of less than stellar playing but have won because they thought they could. They play in the state semi-finals tomorrow and if they win will play Sat for the state championship. I am proud of all the girls. Regardless of the outcome, they have been exemplary. At the most, Sondra and I will have a girl on the team for ...

Of course, if you have heard anything about Nashville in the last week, you know we had snow. Some areas got up to about 8" but my best guess is that we got about 5-6" at our house. I was at SE Conclave in Chattanooga Weds-Fri last week and got to drive home Fri during the snow storm. Saw about 10 wrecks happen and saw remnants of many more. Growing up in MO taught be one thing about driving in snow/ice. Drive slowly and leave plenty of room between cars. The normal 2 hr drive took 3.5 hours but I made it home safely. Fri night was sledding night with the Fullers and it was big fun. We were all like little kids out playing and sledding. No major crashes for any of us. A couple of funny things happened but they will go unsaid in detail here. Saturday was a long run in the snow where I ran and tried to catch a neighbor who was out and about on the greenway. I followed his prints and found him about 5.5 miles in. It was a slow, tough run but a good one. The training for Boston ...

I just realized that I have been remiss in blogging this past week and can only chock that up to being lazy. No excuses on my part. I have been on vacation and guess that has translated into vacating from blogging. The past week has been very good and Christmas was great for us. We hosted a couple of families who families live out of state for a Christmas Eve meal. Both of the wives were pregnant and could not travel. One of the ladies, Trisha has had her baby since that time and Olivia is doing well and you can catch up with them here . The other lady is due mid-January. We had a great time with them and their little guys who are 2 and 1.5 yrs. Christmas morning was just the Turners and we enjoyed ourselves very much. The girls pretty much knew what they were getting for Christmas because they had picked out "all" of their presents. At least they thought they had picked all of them out. I pulled a little surprise with a North Face backpack each that they had been wanting fo...

Flew out of Nashville early on Fri. via Atlanta to Richmond. It was a dreary, rainy day in Richmond on Friday and a little cool. Met up with Kelly Davis and his wife, Sarah their son, Samuel at the Expo at 11a. Picked up all the race stuff, a couple of PowerGels and then headed to a nice little Italian restaurant for pasta. It was a nice meal at a good price and then we headed to theDavis' home. Kelly is a ministry buddy of mine who works for the IMB and had graciously invited me to stay with them on Fri. night. Pretty much laid around most of the afternoon and then we headed out to PizzaFusion for a little more carbo loading. I dined on the organic 4 cheese, sun-dried tomato pizza w/ wheat crust. It was very good for sure. We headed back to the house in the rain and watched some football and then headed to bed. Morning came early and I ate a bagel and drank plenty of water and gatorade. Kelly was running the half-marathon and his race started at 730a so we headed out about 615a. ...

Last week it was home all week and this week it is gone all week. I left Monday am and headed to Destin, FL (I know tough assignment) for a couple of church visits and then Metro Youth Minister's meeting. This is a group of about 60 of the largest church youth groups in the US and they meet once a year. It is always good to connect with them. I flew to CA yesterday to participate in Equipped for Excellence . It is a large one-day training experience for the Inland Empire Association. I will be leading many things related to youth ministry. Of course, they will hear alot about the LifeWay Student Development Strategy . I enjoy these training sessions. My running has been going pretty well. I mentioned in my last post that I had some buddies running Boston and all of them did well. Congrats to David, Gene, Bob, and Ted. I still am planning to running Boston next year and hoping to get some of my buddies from Nashville qualified this Fall. This has been an incredibly busy Spring it se...

It has been great to be home all this week. It was good to have the whole family together for Easter. Monday through Wednesday we hosted a Student BETA Conference at LifeWay and it went great. It was so refreshing and encouraging to listen to and learn from youth ministers. We had invited 21 youth ministers here to hear about our student development strategy and to hear what LifeWay Student Ministry can do to learn from them. It was an exciting time. I love that fact that I get to work with youth ministers across the nation and even some around the world. Last night we hosted a get together for our sunday school class from New Hope and laughed until we cried. What a great group of students and what a priviledge to just get to hang out with them. Family is good. It is Banquet night for Morgan. She has had many of her friends come through the house today for their make-up to done by my wife. She dabbles in BeautiControl and made the girls look more beautiful than they already were. N...